Cummington may move to protect pollinators, consider $2.2 million budget at Friday TM

By FRAN RYAN

For the Gazette

Published: 05-03-2017 5:19 PM

CUMMINGTON — If voters at Friday’s annual Town Meeting approve, the town may soon take steps to protect pollinators and enhance their habitat.

The resolution for pollinators is one of two nonbinding questions on the docket at the meeting. The other calls for the support of state and federal legislation to provide greater transparency in political donations and limit the influence of money in politics.

The meeting will be held at the Cummington Community House, 33 Main St., at 7 p.m.

A short special Town Meeting to address standard housekeeping issues on the transferring of funds between existing town accounts will take place at 6:30 p.m.

Voters at the meeting will consider a $2,200,953 budget for fiscal 2018, beginning on July 1. This is an increase of $132,247 over the towns fiscal 2017 budget of $2,068,707.

Voters will see 20 articles on the warrant Friday.

The requested total school and library budget next year is slightly more than $1 million, a number that is supported and recommended by the Finance Committee.

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Select Board member Bill Adams said that warrant this year is “pretty straightforward.”

“We don’t have any big purchases for the town this year,” Adams said Wednesday.

Residents will also vote to authorize the Select Board and/or assessors to negotiate and enter into a contract for payment in lieu of personal property taxes with Revenergy C2 Franklin LLC, for a proposed solar electric generating facility that would be located on Plainfield Road on property owned by Ronald Wolf.

“This would be a commercial solar facility,” Adams said.

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